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Dear Mr Walker...

So I finally arrived back at my parents' house today after 3 years of living at university, and collected the most recent issues of PC Gamer UK which I couldnt be arsed to forward to my latest student address. Leafing through the pages, and arriving at my usual first-stop destination of They're Back, I was utterly stunned to discover that John Walker is leaving the mag for good. I mean, the man has been there for twelve years. Twelve years! Thats over half of my entire life!

Anyway, I'd just like to say cheers for the years of glorious gaming journalism (you always were my favourite PCG/RPS writer), and I hope this means that you'll have more time to contribute to RPS!

I stopped buying PCG mainly because of the price to size ratio. I understand that you can't expect a tome, but for over a fiver I really want something that'll last me more than a day. I know that might not be reasonable, but I don't really have to be reasonable with my consumer products. For quite a while I was buying it just because I enjoyed the podcast so much.

Still, PCG has always been "my" mag. Even during the period when I essentially gave up on PCG gaming for the 360(before I discovered older classics and paradox games ran fine on a laptop) I kept up buying. I'll probably still read RPS when I'm 52 and haven't gone near a game in decades.

I had no idea there was such professional opposition to 'silliness' in games journalism. In fact, having been subscribed to PCG for over eight years, and having followed RPS more or less since it's inception, I'd simply assumed such humour to be the norm. Thats something I'll definately bear in mind if I'm ever lucky enough to embark on such a career myself.

I don't read any game publication for reviews so I can't say I could see me self stop reading something based on a review. I know enough people that honestly hate games that I love and honestly love games that I hate that I've accepted that no review is going to be "right". I do enjoy reading reviews to see the perspective of the writer, but mostly I read for all the things before the reviews at the back of the mag.

The problem with the Empire review is that alot of the issues with the game depended upon circumstance and having played the game for an extended period. It's hard to notice the absence of naval invasions if your a land-locked nation, or if you haven't had the time to play a complete or even multiple campaigns. Reviewing a game like the Total War series can be very difficult if you don't have extended access because the AI can and will behave differently, its hard to spot patterns based on only one (or half) a campaign.

The problem with the Empire review is that alot of the issues with the game depended upon circumstance and having played the game for an extended period. It's hard to notice the absence of naval invasions if your a land-locked nation, or if you haven't had the time to play a complete or even multiple campaigns. Reviewing a game like the Total War series can be very difficult if you don't have extended access because the AI can and will behave differently, its hard to spot patterns based on only one (or half) a campaign.

Same with MMOs. Fundamental problem that writers are paid by the word, not by the length of time they spend playing the game.